The Mail-Journal, Volume 6, Number 52, Milford, Kosciusko County, 28 January 1970 — Page 19

Provides low cost luxurious living

Liberty Homes, Inc., mokes mobile homes for 29 years

Liberty Homes. Inc., located in Syracuse, has long been a leading manufacturer in the Midwest of quality mobile homes. With 29 years of leadership in the field, the company is one of the oldest manufacturers of mobile homes. The company's continuing efforts to improve and modernize its numerous lines has kept it in a position of leadership, and at the same time has helped fill a gap in low priced housing in the nation. Liberty Homes, Inc., began operation on May 11, 1941 as the Liberty Coach Co., with the late Harlan L. Spencer as the company’s principal stockholder in manufacturing quarters located at the east edge of Bremen. Then, in late 1943, the company was moved to its present site just south of the B & O railroad tracks in Syracuse In 1946 the company built a plant in Wakarusa (the building now owned and used by Comfo, Inc., supplier of mobile home furniture,) and in early 1947 erected a new plant in Bremen, giving the company three manufacturing plants. Destroyed By Fire On July 11. 1947 fire struck at

/iQgTjggnjjgß) mi Luxurious Living • <g* '* Through Mobile Homes / SPECIAL SaHf®/' / STYLELINE Aerial View Os Plant At Syracuse, Ind. / WILLIAMSBURG 29 Years Os Leadership Liberty Homes, Inc. BOX 608 PHONE: 215-457-3121 ,! SYRACUSE, IND. 46567

the Syracuse plant of Liberty Coach Co., completely destroying the facility. Liberty chose not to rebuild in Syracuse, although its offices were moved into the corner room of the Pickwick Building for the remainder of 1947 and 1948. The plant at Bremen was then expanded. and the offices were moved into the new plant at Bremen in July 1948. At that time Liberty Coach Co. was generally conceded to be the largest mobile home manufacturer in the nation, employing about 250 people at the Bremen and Wakarusa plants.

The Bremen plant was 1,320 feet long (nearly a quarter mile), and had over 160.000 square feet of floor space. With the death of H. L. Spencer in the fall of 1950. ownership of the company fell to his widow, a son Allen and a son-in-law, James Wilson. As the company outgrew the Bremen plant. Liberty decided to rebuild its Syracuse plant, and in 1957, just 10 years after its disastrous fire, it returned to Syracuse, and the offices were moved to Syracuse in 1958. The company was purchased from the Spencer family by E. J. Hussey of Detroit in 1960, and Mr. Hussey became and is now president and owner of the firm. The Bremen plant was closed January 1,1959 and the facilities leased, and later sold to Stauffer Chemical Co. 3,000 A Year Liberty Coach Co. was renamed Liberty Homes, Inc., and its 150 employees continue to turn out about 3.000 high quality mobile homes per year, serving through dealers a radius of 1,000 miles of Syracuse. The company’s lines include the Special.

i (

Styleline, and Williamsburg and there are eight to 10 models in many of its lengths. The company is in a three-year expansion program. A 64x160 final finish building and a 105x160 cabinet shop, mill room and metal fabrication building were completed in 1968. Under construction at the present time is a

140x182 floor and sidewall department building. With the company’s present high employment in the Lakeland area, coupled with its plans for future expansion. Liberty Homes, Inc., promises to be one of the most stabilizing manufacturers in the area’s economy in the years ahead, j